Why The Top Online Marketers Create Their Own Products

What is the one thing that has taken my online business to the next level?

How did I go from $100,000 per month to $1 million per month?

It’s NOT affiliate marketing, though that’s a great place to start. It’s NOT building a massive eCommerce empire like Amazon. It doesn’t have to do with other people’s products, or physical products at all.

The one thing that has resulted in the most success has been creating my own digital products.

By creating my own digital products, I’ve been able to consistently generate over $10 million in sales per year.

And it’s not just me. Many other people have done it before me, many are doing it now and I’ve even taught thousands of others how to earn a living by creating their own products.

Why Create Your Own Product?

Ok, I get it. The idea of creating an original product may seem overwhelming. But trust me, it’s really not.

There are some simple ways to create a high-quality digital product with little to no headache.

Digital products are, as you can probably figure out, products that are in digital format. These can be ebooks, audiobooks, PDF reports, video courses, audio courses, written courses and anything else in digital format.

Here’s some great news: Digital publishing is growing exponentially! In 2015, eBook sales were $6.74 billion in the US alone! And that’s just a tiny sliver of the digital publishing market as a whole.

The reason why I love digital products is because they come with some BIG advantages...

Advantages of Creating Digital Products

Digital publishing comes with some truly awesome advantages.

100% Profit and Ownership

When we publish a digital product, we keep all of the profit. There is no affiliate commission or middle men to pay. There are also no products to buy, so there’s no cost for inventory either.

Digital publishing means ownership of the product and profits. It’s also simple to build an entire funnel ourselves – from start to finish - to deliver the product to customers and collect the profits.

Scalability

Digital publishing is infinitely scalable. This means that selling 5,000 of a product is no different than selling 5 of a product!

With digital publishing, everything is automated and scalable.

Easy Distribution

Digital distribution is so easy. People just have to download or access the digital product online.

There is no physical location, inventory or shipping required.

Location Independent

With digital products, we can sell to and from anywhere in the world.

Our customers can be in Canada while we’re on a beach in Italy. Digital publishing is not limited by location.

Dynamic

Digital products can easily be updated or changed. Made a spelling error somewhere? Type, click and it’s corrected. Want to create a special coupon? That’s also just a couple clicks away.

At this point, it’s pretty clear to see that creating digital products comes with some serious advantages. But how do we actually create and sell these products? There’s a simple 7 step process to follow…

7 Simple Steps of Product Creation

Create A Product

The first step here is actually creating the product. And it’s actually much simpler than most people think.

There are two basic parts of creating a product:

Choosing a niche

Creating the actual product

Choosing a Niche

A niche is a sub-category. Niches are important, because choosing the right niche can make or break most people.

Here are three general categories which are the most profitable:

Health/Fitness

Money

Relationships/Dating

Choosing a niche within one of these categories will greatly increase our chances of success.

Here are two examples of niches:

Real estate investing (a niche in the Money category)

Meditation (a niche in the Health/Fitness category)

Do some research before selecting a niche. Find out what people want. Find out what problems people have and offer a solution.

Here are a few questions that will help with choosing a niche:

Is it digital friendly?

Are there other digital publishers in this niche? (If so, that’s a good sign)

How big is the potential audience?

Are people searching online for information in this niche?

Could I create and sell multiple products to this audience?

Pro tip: Passion can help in choosing a niche. If we’re not passionate about a topic, people will sense it. Also, we will be much more likely to learn and build a successful business around something that we are passionate about.

It’s also important to fill a need within the niche. We need to make sure that our product addresses a need or solves a problem. And the unique way we fill this need is called our Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.

Here are a few questions that will help with finding a need to fill:

What are the customers’ biggest challenges?

What circumstances cause the customers to seek out information in this niche?

What changes would these customers like to see in their lives?

What is a problem or opportunity in the niche?

Let’s go back to our examples again…

For the real estate investing niche, maybe the product offers a simple solution for people. Something like real estate investing can be complex and overwhelming, so a product that simplifies everything into plain English would definitely fill a need.

With meditation, the product might teach busy people how to meditate. Many people know the benefits of meditation, yet don’t have the time to do it. So gearing a product towards teaching busy people how to meditate would fill this need.

Creating the Actual Product

When it comes to digital products, there are four basic formats:

Written – eBook, PDF, written course

Audio – Audiobook, audio course

Video – A video course based on screen captured presentations or “talking to the camera” videos

Hybrid – Any combination of the other three

Let’s go back to our examples again.

For the real estate investing niche, a good idea would be an online course consisting of PowerPoint presentation videos. Having a series of PowerPoint presentation videos would be an effective way to convey the information.

For the meditation niche, an idea would be something like “Guided Meditations for Busy People.” This would consist of audio guided meditations.

There are many approaches to digital publishing. It’s important to research the niche, come up with a good USP and tailor the product based on those factors.

Now when it comes to creating the product itself, here are two approaches…

The DIY Way

The first option for product creation is, of course, doing it ourselves.

We can align our strengths with the unique selling proposition. If someone is a good presenter and the niche works well for videos, recording videos would be a good idea. If someone is a good writer and a written product would work well for the offer, then create a written product.

For any product, create an outline, separate the project into small chunks, and take action daily until it’s completed.

The Easy Way

The other way to create a product is to outsource it.

There are many great website out there, with competent people who are experts in product creation. These sites include:

With ineffective sales copy, products don’t sell, no matter how good the product is.

Copywriting, or the art of selling through words, is the most important business skills to have.

When it comes to copywriting, follow my proven 5-step system for writing great copy.

Any digital product relies on effective copy to be sold, whether it’s an eBook sold on Amazon, a report sold through a sales page or video course sold on a webinar. And all of those follow these basic steps…

Introduction

The introduction is the most important step in copywriting.

It’s so important because it needs to catch people’s attention. If the introduction doesn’t catch someone’s attention and entice them to read further – it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the copy or the product is - that sale is lost.

Use specifics in the introduction to catch people’s attention. Specific numbers and statistics work well. Give the reader the “what” but not the “how.” This will create a sense of intrigue and they will keep reading.

The Story

After catching people’s attention, the next step is to tell a story. People love stories. Our cultures are based on stories. Stories are entertaining.

And not only that, stories are relatable. They build a connection between the copywriter and the reader.

But it isn’t the storyteller who is the hero. The hero is the product itself. The key is to be Robin, not Batman.

The Content

The content is where the sale is truly made. By the time the reader finishes the content of the copy, they have already made the decision to buy or not to buy.

When writing effective content within copy, the key is to answer the question “Why?” Give the reader an epiphany, an aha moment. Tell them something they never knew or something that will blow their mind.

The Transition

Here is where the reader can be brought from the content to the pitch. In the transition, the key is to justify asking money for the product.

This justification comes by revealing the struggles and sacrifices made to bring the product to them. Make it a mission and emphasize how the mission will solve their problem or fill their need.

During this transition, the potential customer gives permission to be pitched to.

The Pitch

The pitch is where the copywriter gives the reader a strong reason to buy the product now.

If the prospect feels like they’re taking advantage of the copywriter, that means the copywriting worked effectively.

After the pitch is delivered, let the prospect take action.

Ways To Sell Your Product

When I say “sales copy” most people probably think of a written sales letter. Yes, that’s true. But a written sales letter is just one of many forms of sales copy.

4. Funnel

A funnel is a visual representation of the journey a customer takes from being aware of the product to actually buying it.

When it comes to a digital product, funnels allow us to increase customer value. This means that we can increase the amount of money we make from every customer.

This is done by including upsells, upgrades or additional one time offers.

The example of a funnel that everyone is familiar with is at McDonald’s. When someone buys a burger, they are then asked, “Would you like fries with that? Would you like a drink with that?” and so on. That is a funnel.

Here are some questions to ask when coming up with a funnel:

Are there an upsells or upgrades that will increase the amount of each sale?

Are there any additional offers I can include?

How can I increase the value of each customer?

Using the real estate investing course example, the funnel might include an upsell consisting of an additional, add-on course about finding the best properties. People can choose to upgrade their order to get the add-on course.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of building a funnel, the landing page tools listed above make this process very simple.

Don’t neglect the power of funnels and increasing customer value. This is where the real money is made!

5. Member’s Area

A member’s area is where customers can download or view the product.

The member’s area is usually locked or hidden so only customers can access the product. Customers automatically receive login information, which they use to access the member’s area.

A great example of a member’s area is our Inbox Blueprint course, which has an amazing member’s area with all of the lessons, bonuses and downloads related to the course. It’s basically a private website for people who joined the course.

Like with every other aspect of setting up and selling a digital product, there are some awesome tools for creating a member’s area.

6. Integration

The integration step is where everything connects.

It’s important to test the entire process of buying and accessing the digital product.

We want to make sure that everything works in a seamless process. This includes making sure that payment buttons work, the member’s area logins are sent, the landing page design is good, the upsell process works and all those kinds of things.

All of the tools we’ve listed so far make the integration step as smooth and simple as possible.

7. Payment

The last step is how we actually accept payments.

In order to make money, we need to be able to accept payments, right?

We need to make sure that we can accept payments and integrate it into the purchasing process. Don’t worry; there are a lot of tools that help with this step as well…

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About The Author

Anik Singal is the founder and CEO of Lurn, Inc. and VSS Mind. He is widely considered, by the industry, as one of today's most successful digital publishing marketers. His specialties include profit-generating product launches, building backends and funnels, article marketing, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing and business management consulting. Check out his podcast, The Fighting Entrepreneur, on iTunes or Spotify.

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